"I knew that it was important that we tried to hang in when Liverpool had the domination for 30 minutes or so. (In) the last 10-15 minutes of the first half, I thought we started to get a second wind.

"In the second half I thought we were excellent. We gave it a go. For us, we have played probably three teams that are expected to be in that top group and we have given everyone a game.

"We have won one, just got beaten on Wednesday and just got beat (today)."

Lambert felt his side were the better team after the break and praised Mignolet for keeping the in-form Benteke at bay.

"The goalkeeper has had two fantastic saves from Christian, Gabby (Agbonlahor) might have scored and then Andi's (Weimann) deflected one," he said.

"He's a top goalkeeper and he's made two world class saves.

"We kept on going. It wasn't as if we never had chances. Second half I thought we dominated the game."

Villa will not play another Premier League game for three weeks, with more than a fortnight of rest between Wednesday's League Cup tie against Rotherham United and their home fixture against Newcastle United on September 14.